Homes are becoming more wired and connected with the proliferation of computing devices such as desktops, tablets, entertainment systems, and portable communication devices. As these computing devices evolve, many different ways have been introduced to allow users to interact with computing devices, such as through mechanical devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, etc.), touch screens, motion, and gesture. Another way to interact with computing devices is through natural language input such as speech.
The use of natural language input to interact with computing devices presents many challenges. One challenge concerns ensuring that the natural language speech is intended to be a command to be executed by the computing device. In general, the user may indicate that natural language input is intended to be a command by clicking on a window, pressing an icon on a touch screen, or otherwise explicitly indicating that the natural language input is a command using a non-natural language input. However, in systems in which a user gives natural language commands to a computing device without first indicating the natural language input includes commands, the computing device may be unable to act on the commands. In other cases, the computing device may incorrectly interpret background noises or background speech that is not intended to be natural language input as a natural language command.
Accordingly, there is a need for techniques to improve the user experience in interacting with natural language control devices.